1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a lamp for a folding display including a horizontally extending pair of bars articulately connected with each other like scissors onto which the lamp is mounted. The lamp has a lamp base provided at its rear end with at least one receptacle which is freely accessible from above and which engages one of the bars of the folding display. The lamp base is placed on the bar and spaced horizontally therefrom in such a way that the lamp is held fast by its own weight onto the folding display but may be easily detached.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such folding displays consist principally of a structure including articulatedly connected bars which fold down into a folded state in which the display can be transported easily and space savingly. The display can be then folded out to an unfolded state to provide a three-dimensional display structure onto which articles can be mounted for display. In the unfolded state, the folding display can be quite large, for example, the display may occupy a complete wall. Such folding displays are distributed by several firms, for example, by the assignee hereof, Expo Products Trading Sulser & Cie of Switzerland, who distributes folding displays under the trademarks "Expostar" and "Expofix".
Lamps for known folding displays are fastened in an easily detachable manner to a fairly large U-shaped hoop which is mounted on the folding display. The U-shaped hoop is provided with receptacles at both ends which are freely accessible from above and which grip the rear bars of the structure. The hoop, together with its lamp, extends in front of the front bars of the structure and is fastened by its own weight to the folding display but may be easily detached. Another mode of fastening the hoop uses the articulating joint of the structure. This mode, however, automatically has the effect that the illuminating member of the lamp, e.g., a light bulb, is not placed over the center of the display onto which, for example, a poster is mounted, but is positioned at the border of the poster and provides poor illumination.
Such structures, moreover, are, first, dependant on the positions of the joints, second, only usable for a particular bar or tube diameter, and third, are either unstable or complicated to fasten, and are relatively heavy and generally quite expensive.
Moreover, this know structural design is not completely satisfying from an aesthetic point of view, particularly since a very broad hoop must be used for reasons of stability. Also, the known system provides no device for guiding the electrical cable of the lamp to the plane of the folding display. Rather, the electrical cable of prior designs emerges at the lamp itself in the central area of the U-shaped hoop and runs externally along a leg of the hoop to the folding display and onward. This does not present an especially attractive appearance.
Folding displays are usually manufactured in two sizes which utilize bars or tubes with different diameters. The known lamp has a lamp base with receptacles for engaging the hoop which are open from above, however, they are only sized for one bar diameter. This means that a different hoop and lamp base must be applied for each bar diameter in order to mount the lamp to the display. This complicates particularly the storage capability of the folding display and its lamps.